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Maxim Shanahan

Australia - Correspondent

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Maxim Shanahan

Maxim Shanahan has covered the Yoorrook Justice Commission and Afghanistan war crimes investigations for JusticeInfo.net since 2022. He holds a degree in law from the University of Sydney, and works for the Australian Financial Review. He writes mostly on law, and has covered domestic and international legal issues for Justinian, the Gazette of Law and Journalism and Honi Soit.

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In Australia, transitional justice is being undermined by politics. The Aboriginal community is trying to adapt to the failings of truth commissions following the recent change of government in Queensland. Photo: An Aboriginal man, with only his hands visible, burns herbs during a traditional smoking ceremony.
The retreating tide of transitional justice in Australia
24 January 2025 by Maxim Shanahan
There have been many setbacks for transitional justice in Australia in the past year. The latest one happened in the state of Queensland. A new Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry was shut down after the conservative opposition won [...]
Art installation in Australia representing the aboriginal flag Against tide, Yoorrook Commission goes on
9 November 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
One year after the start of a unique Australian truth-telling commission run by First Peoples in the state of Victoria, known as the Yoorrook Commission, urgent recommendations have been made to authorities after hearings which gr [...]
Ben Roberts-Smith - 3 Australian newspapers named him in allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. A first (civil) ruling confirms Australia's war crimes in Afghanistan
9 June 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
It's 'just' a civil defamation case, but it has caused thunder in Australia. Soldier Ben Roberts-Smith lost the case against the media accusing him of war crimes in Afghanistan, and to establish this the media had to present evide [...]
Justice for Aboriginal people in Australia - Shane Patton, Victoria's Chief Commissioner, admits the injustices still faced by Indigenous Peoples. Yoorrook Commission: “It takes the death of an Aboriginal” to reform laws
16 May 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
In the fortnight to Monday May 15, senior representatives of law, prisons and police institutions appeared before the Yoorrook Justice Commission, to face questioning over their responsibility in perpetuating the systemic injustic [...]
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Aboriginal children in Australia - Yoorrook Commission reveals alarming colonization figures
2 May 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Yoorrook commission: the government admits “a shameful system” In Australia’s state of Victoria, the Yoorrook Commission reconvened on April 27 for a further round of hearings in which public servants, government ministers and senior police officers are to be questioned over the failure to ad [...]
Australia's war crimes in Afghanistan - SAS trooper Oliver Schultz arrested
28 March 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Australia's war crimes in Afghanistan: a high-stakes first arrest In Australia, a first arrest – of a former SAS trooper, Oliver Schultz – in the investigation of alleged war crimes committed by Special Forces in Afghanistan launched two years ago marks a significant development and poses novel [...]
Aboriginal Children of Australia - Ballarat Orphanage
6 March 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Yoorrook Truth-Commission: Cold light on the child protection system The Yoorrook Truth Commission, in Victoria state, southeast Australia, restarted on Wednesday March 1 with a third round of hearings centred on truth-telling about the removal of the Aboriginal children from their families and chi [...]
Eleanor A. Bourke, Chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Australia.
3 February 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Continued violence of colonisation exposed before Australia’s Yoorrook Commission At the national level, Australia has struggled to hold a truth, reconciliation and reparations process on the violence committed against Indigenous peoples. The state of Victoria, in South-East Australia, wants to reverse this cou [...]
War Crimes in Afghanistan - Article in The Canberra Times (Australia) headlined:
21 November 2022 by Maxim Shanahan
War crimes and press freedom battle in Australia A whistleblower criminal trial and a defamation case involving a high-profile soldier and leading media houses: these are the main justice forums where alleged war crimes by Australian armed forces in Afghanistan are currently bei [...]